Glassware articles such as botles are commonly produced in a well known I.S. glassware forming machine, wherein a number of consecutuve individual forming mechanisms perform a number of sequenced forming steps in the processing of a molten glass gob, and in a predetermined forming cycle, to product the desired glassware article.
High production rates require good performance of each of the individual mechanism constituting the machine, in order to achieve a forming cycle corresponding to said high production rates.
The most relevant prior art to achieve good performance of the forming machine is represented by the U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,116 of Huff et al., wherein a first and a second sensor are provided for two consecutive mechanism of the machine, to provide input and output signals representative of the operation of mechanisms. Sensors are also provided to provide a signal representative of the dead time between operation of said mechanisms. In this manner maximization of throughput of an individual forming mechanism is accomplished, by detecting dead time during which individual forming mechanisms are at a standstill, and by then deciding how such motionless moments can be eliminated.
While said patent provides the possiblity of elimination of dead time between the operation of two consecutive mechanisms, it does not take into consideration that a particular one of the mechanisms may have been delayed in its operation due to incorrent functioning of that mechanism during the operation of the machine. This impedes the optimization of the time cycle of the machines and consequently the achievement of higher production rates.